Megalomania
by coincidencless
Summary: Nobody, no matter how determined, is infinitely patient. At least, that's what Sans is counting on.


**I do not own Undertale.**

* * *

Attempt 1

The hallway was broad, and the setting sun burnt through the windows to cast the entire room in yellow light. Massive, marble pillars stretched up to an ornate ceiling. A patterned checkerboard of butterscotch and gold stretched across the floor, and it was this long room into which Chara stepped.

She walked forward, twirling her knife in Frisk's stolen, boyish hand. A devious grin plastered itself on her face, and her free hand tapped the locket around her throat. Chara was close. So close. Almost to the father who had left her for dead, almost to the stupid little _weed_ that dared claim to be her precious, blameless brother.

Hmm... yes, she could do it here. The girl focused, and a burst of golden light tethered her to that point of space and time. She wasn't alone, though.

Walking forward, she met the eyes of the short, squat skeleton. His hands were in his pockets and with his eye lights, he glanced at her and chuckled.

"Heya," he greeted.

"Hello," she purred in an unsettlingly masculine voice.

"You've been busy, huh?" he continued, perfectly at ease. Oh yes, Chara had most _certainly_ been busy. Monsters were so easily felled, if you just had the right powers. Sure there had been that speed bump with the fish, but Chara was exponentially stronger than back then. Like wheat before the scythe.

"So, I've got a question for ya. Do you think even the worst person can change?" He closed his eyesockets sadly. "That everyone can be a good person if they just try?"

She stepped forward, her grin growing too wide.

Instead of any indication of unease, the skeleton just chuckled. Fool, did he not know who she was? "Alright, well here's a better question." And then his eyes opened, and the lights were gone, revealing an empty, ghoulish skull. "Do you wanna have a bad time?" ... did he think he could? "Cause if you take another step forward, you are REALLY not going to like what happens next."

Another step. His threats were empty.

He sighed, as if resigned to his doom. "Welp, sorry old lady. This is why I never make promises." He cracked his vertebrae and looked out the window for a moment. Chara approached further; he was truly foolish enough to look away? "It's a beautiful day outside," he muttered as Chara grew closer. "Birds are singing, flowers are blooming. On days like these, kids like you... " He turned back to her, eyes dark. "... _should be burning in hell._ "

For a brief moment his left eye burned blue and gold, and then a force like a mountain _slammed_ Chara into the ground. She gasped, almost losing her grip on her knife, but before she could finish breathing in a forest of bones tore free from the ground beneath her, stabbing her everywhere and throwing her into the air. The crushing weight lifted, but before Chara fell to the ground more bones, flying at her from the windows, slammed her mercilessly. Each one that struck her left a battered wound that continued burning long after, and when the onslaught ended she finally fell to the ground, aching and wounded.

Four figures materialized around her. At first glance they appeared to be enormous dragon skulls, and a first glance was all Chara was afforded because they all opened their mouths. Only one was aimed at her, but agonizing, searingly cold light consumed her world and dropped her smoking body onto the ground, breathing heavily. More skulls appeared, and she tried to pull herself out of the way, but she hadn't looked where they aimed and instead walked right _into_ the intersection of all four beams.

The world faded into darkness. Something in her shivered, broke in two, and shattered into pieces.

In the endless darkness of death, she and Frisk stared at each other, wide-eyed.

Whoa.

* * *

Attempt 2

Frisk, of course, hadn't been willing to remind her where the skulls came from, more than willing to let her suffer. Fine. She didn't need him anyway.

She pulled herself back into the spacetime anchor and stomped forwards at the _stupid fucking skeleton_ and yes Frisk she could swear if she wanted to, she was much older than she looked!

"Heya, you look frustrated about something," he said with a little laugh.

Chara glowered at him in response.

The dark expression returned. "Guess I'm pretty good at my job, huh?" he asked, before turning aside again.

"It's a beautiful day outside," he muttered. "Birds are singing, flowers are blooming. On days like these kids like you..." And exactly like before, he turned back to her with a ghoulish expression. "... _should be burning in hell._ "

This time, Chara was ready, and didn't fight the sudden surge of gravity. Once she was on the ground she instantly jumped up, narrowly avoiding the eruption of bones beneath her. Then they came flying at her from the side and she held up an arm to shield her face from their razor edges. She _tried_ to bob and weave between them, but far too many struck her, and wherever they did some odd prickling burn continued its work, like somebody was staring at her back.

Then the storm ended and four dragon skulls appeared around her in a circle. She jumped into the safe spot as they fired, and as the next quartet appeared she backtracked to safety.

Then the next four appeared and, while she moved to safety, her legs were still caught in the thunderous beams, and then two more skulls, easily twice the size of the others, appeared on either side of Chara and _roasted_ her body. She fell to the ground, smoke steaming off her and with Frisk's clothes torn nearly to ribbons. She stared up at Sans disbelievingly.

He shrugged. "Huh. Always wondered why people never use their strongest attack first."

Chara felt like she was going to have a bad time.

* * *

Attempt 3

"... suffice to say you look really... unsatisfied."

"You could say that," she retorted, gripping her knife so hard her knuckles turned white.

He shrugged. "Alright." Then he opened his dark eyes. "How about we make it a third?"

She got through his initial barrage, though Chara was still too slow and was on death's door by the time it was over. She didn't bother healing herself, and instead charged at the skeleton with dark magic bristling around her knife. So what if he could drop her so easily? She could do the same to him. Bones would crack and wither, armor would corrode, and her knife came upon him like a comet.

Chara hadn't blinked, yet she still missed it. Sans was there, and then he wasn't. Instead he was off to the side chuckling. "What? You think I'm just going to stand there and _take_ it?"

Then a bone smacked into her head, and her soul ruptured.

* * *

Attempt 4

"... flowers are blooming. On days like these, kids like you..." Without warning, Sans's hand went down, and so did Chara. Still caught by surprise, she was impaled by the bones that sprouted from the ground, then torn apart by the storm of razor bones before the skulls even made their appearance.

 _God damn it! Wipe that grin off your face, Frisk!_

* * *

Attempt 10  


Like she had before, Chara reappeared in the hall. Like a glacier she slid over to the monster, who gave her that same stupid, knowing grin.

"Hmm, that expression." He pointed a bony finger at her. "That's the expression of someone who's died seven times in a row."

"Wrong," she hissed.

He nodded. "Nope, that's definitely nine, sorry." His eyes went dark. "Or was it ten?" he intoned in a black voice.

Chara, the demon spirit who had possessed an innocent boy, who had slaughtered the great magician Toriel with no effort, who had overcome the Undying, who had turned the underground inside out within a week, gulped nervously.

* * *

Attempt 17  


She ducked as the shrieking bones passed over head, then leaped away from a patch of bristling tiles before the bones beneath could skewer her. She launched herself at Sans, but like every time before he flickered away before she could obliterate him. That was fine. He couldn't keep dodging forever. He would get tired, but Chara was immortal.

"All I know is, seeing what comes next? I can't afford not to care anymore," he chimed.

Chara screamed as a skull, which had appeared behind her, caught her in the small of the back. She fell to the ground and rolled away from the next series of skulls, but even though she avoided them the one beam that had struck continued to burn. It was like bugs, bugs crawling on her back, the hundreds of monsters she'd slain staring at her, rooting for the skeleton, rooting for her destruction. She groaned, but stood up straight and fixed the skeleton with a hateful glare.

He panted at the pillar he'd stopped at, and wiped sweat from his skull. "Ugh... that being said you uh, really like swinging that thing around huh? Okay, listen." Chara did. Maybe she could launch a sneak attack.

"I know you didn't answer me before, but somewhere in there? I can feel it. There's a glimmer of a good person inside of you. The memory of someone who once wanted to do the right thing. Someone who, in another time, might have even been a friend."

 _'Sans...'_ Frisk thought morosely in the back of Chara's mind. _'I'm so sorry...'_

The skeleton held out a hand, smiling painfully. "C'mon buddy, do you remember me? Please if you're listening, let's forget all of this okay? Just lay down your weapon and..." He sighed. "Well, _my_ job will be a lot easier."

Ha, ha. Surrender to him, just for him to kill her. No, Chara hadn't come so close to the destruction of all that is or could have been just to lay down and die. She attacked, only to be dodged.

He shook his head. "Welp, it was worth a shot." His eyes went empty. "Guess you like doing things the hard way, huh?"

* * *

Attempt 54  


This was getting ridiculous.

No matter which way she twisted and turned, no matter how she contorted her body, she was always hit by the hailstorm of bones. No matter how she predicted, feigned, or rushed, she could never hit him. Once or twice she got close, but Sans always smiled at her so she got the feeling he was _mocking_ her!

"... but that's ridiculous right?" he asked as Chara danced between five beams, only to trip over a bone. She fell down and a femur brained her across the back of the head. She rolled to the side and stood, but the onslaught didn't relent. "Yeah," he growled. "You're the type of person who won't _ever_ be happy."

Stupid skeleton... trying to get into her head... who did he think he was?

As another skull appeared in front of her, and with no way to dodge, Chara didn't even have time to answer her own question.

* * *

Attempt 142

 _'Please,'_ Frisk insisted. _'Please, isn't it at least worth a shot?'_

Fine. She'd humor the mortal.

When Sans offered her mercy she sighed and put down her knife, walking towards him to hug him.

Halfway there, Sans flicked the fingers of his outstretched hands up, and _instantly_ a cage of bone shot up and impaled her a hundred times. "GEEETTTTTTT DUNKED ON!" he jeered.

* * *

Attempt 143  


This time she was ready. The moment his fingers flicked up Chara dodged with all her might to the side. But even then she was still too slow, and the only difference was the pose she died in.

"GEEETTTTTTT..."

* * *

Attempt 144  


She tried to jump off the bones, to use them to rise above the rest, but they were too sharp and she sank down onto them. It was bloody.

"... DUNKED..."

* * *

Attempt 147

Even running straight at him, to tackle him or _something,_ didn't work. He simply summoned the bones under her a second time.

"... ON!"

* * *

Attempt 206

She was wearing him down, that was certain, but Chara's vision was blurry, the world wobbled on its side, and her shallow breathing was tainted with bloody coughs.

"Survive this," he panted, only winded where she was _dying._ "... and I'll show you my special attack."

Then Chara's world turned upside down.

* * *

Attempt 216

Again, gravity turned sideways, and again she fell sideways through the hall. Bones formed branches on the pillars, and she smacked into each one painfully as she went 'down'. Even worse, Sans kept appearing in her peripherals. Sometimes with his hands in his pocket, sometimes shrugging, sometimes staring at her with a ghoulish face, flashing forward as she fell. Then, one hit to her forehead and she was down again.

* * *

Attempt 258

"Survive this, and I'll show you my special attack."

Like all the times before, she didn't. Frisk snickered at her.

* * *

Attempt 641

 _Oh come on!_ she thought as a stalagmite of bone erupted from a butterscotch tile and punctured through her lungs. Chara died again and screamed into the void.

Fine. Fine! She couldn't beat Sans. No matter how many times she threw herself at him, he was always one step ahead of her. Too fast, too strong, too _everything._ She couldn't even learn his patterns beyond the initial onslaught either, because whenever she adapted so did he, and he was obviously better at fighting than Chara. Whether it was by an icy skull, or falling into a field of bones, or just the horrible feeling of everything she'd done crawling up her back and weighing down her neck, making it hard to breathe, she just couldn't win. She simply wasn't fast enough.

She needed a break, she was becoming too stressed and her latest attempts to kill the monster were each less productive than the last.

Frisk, luckily, was content to keep to his own corner of damnation, staring at her smugly.

Chara, despite the lack of lungs, took a deep breath to still herself. Just a little break, then she'd go back into battle with a clear mind.

* * *

Attempt 642

She died again. But that was fine. She was calm and collected. Failure was just a learning experience, and she was getting more experienced. Sans was not.

Eventually, she would be better at fighting. She was determined to be better at fighting. Even if it took her a million years, she would see the world undone.

* * *

Attempt 958

Another strategy was in order. No letting him talk.

The moment Chara returned to the world and the hall materialized, she ran as fast as Frisk's legs could carry her. Sans came into view, eyes wide.

"RRAAAAAAAGH!" she screamed, and then the skeleton's eyes went dark and he chuckled.

For a moment Chara didn't know why, but then a glance at the four skulls above her answered her question. Then they opened fire.

* * *

Attempt 959

This time, as she charged him, the skulls appeared above her again. But she was ready, and dove to the side.

Straight into another four skulls that had been waiting for her.

* * *

Attempt 960

She charged, but this time she dodged the other way, to hide behind a pillar.

Of course, razor bones erupted from it and killed her in a single, fluid motion.

* * *

Attempt 999  


"GEEETTTTTTT DUNKED ON!"

Nope, that hadn't changed.

* * *

Attempt 1,053  


"Yeah, you're the type of person who won't _ever_ be happy."

She'd heard it more times than she cared to count - Chara wasn't counting anything, and all Frisk was counting was how many times she'd lost to the _stupid fucking pile of bones._

And besides, he was wrong. He was wrong the first time he'd said it, he was wrong the two hundredth time he'd said it, and he was wrong this time. She would be happy. All she needed was for him to die, for Asgor and Flowey and _every human being on the face of the planet_ to die, and then she would be happy. What would she do then?

* * *

Attempt 1,106

She didn't really know.

* * *

Attempt 1,532

Honestly, she hadn't thought that far ahead.

* * *

Attempt 1,963

Chara had always just figured she'd figure it out when she got there.

* * *

Attempt 2,414

Destroying the world was a big task, after all.

* * *

Attempt 2,666

And _someone_ wasn't making it any easier!

* * *

Attempt 3,000

She died again, to the initial onslaught to add insult to injury.

Chara took her fifth break. It was longer than the fourth one, which had been longer than the third one...

* * *

Attempt 3,251

This was getting her nowhere.

It didn't matter how much fighting experience she had, Frisk's body was simply too limited. Even if she schooled her reaction time, the flesh was weak. Each time Chara reset, any exercise Frisk got was undone. Only their minds were unscathed.

So she simply needed to train herself. It meant putting off going to Sans, but she'd seen enough of that stupid bag of bones to last ten lifetimes. Chara spent a few weeks in the city stealing the food in shops, running laps, doing push ups. Anything she could think of to whip Frisk into shape. Then, when she judged her speed was - maybe - adequate enough to take down Sans, she sauntered into the hall of judgement.

A supernova of pain blossomed in her chest, and she looked down to see what looked like a thick, thorny vine protruding from her chest, covered in all _sorts_ of blood. It retracted and she fell down.

Oh. They'd been busy while she was training.

* * *

Attempt 3,252  


She was going to dodge the vine.

The vine went almost as fast as sound, so she had next to no warning to dodge it.

* * *

Attempt 3,253

This time she entered the corridor facing the direction of the vine.

For her troubles, Chara got a bone through her neck, from behind.

* * *

Attempt 3,580

After being ambushed for the umpteenth time, Chara sat in the void and sighed, taking a break.

What was she even going to do once she destroyed the world? Who cared? At this point she was determined to do so just to prove a point to the skeleton.

 _'Having a plan for after can't be all that bad,'_ Frisk reminded her.

No, it couldn't. She could... make sand castles the size of the real things. She could...

* * *

Attempt 3,581

... try to fight Sans head on, and get killed again. Needless to say Chara wasn't having a good time.

* * *

Attempt 4,631

With bleary eyes, she used her knife to knock a bone to the side, only for the same arm to be consumed by light. It hurt, but she was so used to the pain. It was even... somewhat pleasant. A familiar friend.

* * *

Attempt 5,215

Chara was probably a masochist at this point. It didn't matter. She _was_ going to win. Eventually. As soon as she figured out how.

* * *

Attempt 5,368

"... who won't EVER be happy."

"SHUT UP! I can be happy!" she screeched. Then she jerked away before Sans could send a sharpened bone down her open mouth, but she jerked herself into a blue bone hovering horizontally and fell on her back. She found herself staring straight up at another skull. In almost slow motion its mouth opened, the eyes flashed, and the icy light inside consumed her.

Sans was wrong though. She could be happy. Chara just wasn't happy at the moment because she kept dying. Chara had been happy while massacring the monsters. It _certainly_ hadn't been just a monotonous grind to make sure they were all dead. It certainly hadn't been aggravating to hear Frisk's grating cries for mercy, for her to relent. It certainly hadn't been boring. It. Had. Made. Her. Happy.

... stupid skeleton.

* * *

Attempt 8,532

Her thoughts began to wander in battle. Normally she'd take a break, but she hadn't taken a break in a long time and just kept throwing herself at Sans, with the same result reach time. Of course her wandering thoughts meant she wouldn't last more than ten seconds, but they wandered anyway.

Her parents, as in her biological parents. At the time she'd been too young to understand it, but now with the benefit of hindsight and her age, she had nothing but searing contempt. Drunkards, abusive to each other, to themselves, to all they saw. Those wastes of space were LUCKY to have outlived her.

Her _real_ parents, who'd taken her in, who'd done so much for her, only for it to be for nothing. They'd barely tried to save her. Just told her reassuring speeches to 'stay determined' and that 'the fate of the world was hers'. A lot of good it had done. She still died, no matter how determined she'd been to see the morning.

Asriel. Oh _Asriel,_ the little monster kid who'd been so kind to her, helped her, came to her bed when he had a nightmare, who wanted to lay her body to rest, who was so merciful to those who deserved none.

Oh. Chara was in darkness again. She must have died at some point during her thinking.

She hardly even noticed anymore.

* * *

Attempt 9,847

"Someday," Sans said, at the epicenter of a hurricane of bone. ", you gotta learn when to QUIT." He sent some of them at her, and despite her best efforts Chara could only dodge half of them. The others stuck in her legs and immobilized her.

"And that day's TODAY!" he cheered, summoning more skulls to incinerate her.

 _'Maybe he's right,'_ Frisk offered. _'You've been doing this a long time now, Chara. You're not getting anywhere.'_

Not yet she wasn't! But she could feel it. She was getting faster. She was getting stronger. It was only a matter of time, and Sans would die.

* * *

Attempt 10,532

She was wrong. She wasn't getting faster or stronger.

* * *

Attempt 12,532

"Survive THIS, and I'll show you my special attack," he panted.

Chara didn't even bother, and let the monster throw her around like a ragdoll.

For the first time since possessing Frisk, she wondered if maybe she _should_ just give up.

* * *

Attempt 12,535

No. No! She was never giving up! She was Chara, she was immortal. She was, and she would be. Sans was living on borrowed time, forced to do the same things over and over - even though he kept easily adapting new strategies whenever Chara tried to throw him off - and she WOULD prevail. It was only a matter of time. Twelve thousand deaths was nothing. She would die twelve MILLION more, and even then she'd keep on trying, if it meant the destruction of the world!

* * *

Attempt 12,598

Maybe she'd underestimated just how much time twelve million deaths was.

* * *

Attempt 16,312

"Let's get to the point," Sans said.

Chara sighed, rolled her shoulders, and nodded.

"Ready?" Again, she nodded.

Slam to the ground. Jump up and avoid the bones.

Rush of bones from sideways, bob and weave between them, but be too slow and always get hit.

Feel the eyes of everyone you killed boring into your back.

Dodge the first set of skulls.

Dodge the second set of skulls.

Dodge the third set, barely.

Be clipped in the foot by the final two.

Chara gave it her all, but like the innumerable times before, it just wasn't enough.

* * *

Attempt 18,421

After beings stabbed through the eyes - it stopped being so gruesome after the first three thousand times - Frisk sighed.

 _'Isn't there a saying about this? That repeating the same actions and expecting different results is the definition of madness?'_

Shut up, kid.

* * *

Attempt 20,000  


After dying again, Chara took another break. She didn't know how long. There wasn't any measurable passage of time in the afterlife.

She thought, again, about her parents. Her _real_ parents. About her brother, and his unjust death - because - of - her - and his fate. But Flowey wasn't Asriel. He was just some empty shade of Asriel that didn't deserve to be treated the same way.

Eventually, she'd get past the skeleton, and then she'd kill Flowey as easily as Sans kept killing her.

She'd put the last memory of Asriel to rest, like she should have rested long ago.

* * *

Attempt 25,321

Chara finally, finally figured out what she was going to do when she destroyed the world. She was going to get a bunch of boulders, whittle them into millions of Sans skulls, and _stomp them to gravel for the rest of time._

* * *

Attempt 25,322

Eventually. She was _patient._

* * *

Attempt 35,435

She almost survived the final attack before Sans's special attack.

Well, not exactly 'almost'. She'd been destroyed.

The short skeleton stood above her, shaking his head and smoothing out the wrinkles on his blue hood. "I know your type. You'll just keep going, no matter what. Not out of any desire for good, or evil, but just because you think you _can._ And because you 'can' you 'have to'."

Her soul shattered, and she thought about his words.

They were true. She was so far beyond caring about destroying the world. She just. Wanted. To. Beat. Him. It was a matter of pride at this point.

* * *

Attempt 47,531

Chara tried, again, to train Frisk's body into something that could kill Sans.

Like all the many times before, it didn't work.

* * *

Attempt 52,560

It was like throwing herself at a mountain and trying to push it. She could push and push and push, but the mountain would never, ever move.

But she would never die. The dead couldn't die, after all. Eventually, the mountain would be eroded to dust and she would prevail.

Unless she kept resetting the mountain to pristine condition.

* * *

Attempt 64,320

"... EVER be happy."

He was wrong.

Sure her life before coming to the underground had been miserable and... and sure, after her death she'd rapidly soured, and right now she was still getting killed by a joker of a skeleton, but in the brief time she and Asriel had been siblings she'd been so... content. Happy. Each day was a new possibility. But now...

* * *

Attempt 73,251

"... EVER be happy."

... now Asriel was gone. Her biological parents, damn them, were gone. Toriel was gone. Asgore would be gone, eventually, by her hand or not. Frisk didn't speak anymore, rather just gazed into infinity as she kept throwing herself at Sans over and over and _over_ again.

She was alone in a barren, empty world devoid of meaning. All that was left to do was _make_ the planet look the part. It wouldn't make her happy. But it would at least make things right.

* * *

Attempt 87,321

"... because you 'can', you 'have to'."

That wasn't the reason. It wasn't because she could. It was because that was all she _could_ do. She wasn't ready to just let go and drift away. Even if she could somehow restore her brother, she couldn't reconstruct her own body to live with her parents again as if nothing had happened. Chara wasn't human anymore. She was a demon now, plain and simple. All demons did was kill people.

So that was what she did.

Or at least what she'd been doing. She hadn't killed anyone since first confronting Sans.

* * *

Attempt 92,521

"... because you 'can', you 'have to'."

And if she didn't, then what WOULD she do? Ever since falling down the mountain she'd... she'd been someone. She'd been a sister. A daughter. A princess. A symbol of hope, that monsters and humans could coexist. Ever since she'd died she had been the dreaded and vengeful Chara, who would usher in the end of days. If she gave up...

... she'd be a nobody again.

* * *

Attempt 121,316

Bones whirled around and inside her, but she didn't feel them anymore.

If... if she was a nobody, she'd be forgotten. Walked over. That wasn't an option. She'd never be the powerless one again. Once she somehow, eventually, got past Sans, she could...

She, she could...

* * *

Attempt 121,317

"GEEETTTTTTT DUNKED ON!"

* * *

Attempt 163,253

Once again, Chara tried to convince Sans to just let her pass. This time, instead of intimidation, she swallowed her pride and begged.

She died.

* * *

Attempt 200,000

For what seemed like a year, she took a break and just... sort of floated there.

But then she was going to go back and kill Sans! She was determined to, after all. If you were determined to do something, you could NEVER step wrong!

* * *

Attempt 201,240

She stepped the wrong way and a bone shot through her torso.

* * *

Attempt 231,094

Was Frisk right? Was repeating the same thing and expecting different results madness? It certainly felt that way. Chara's tongue was heavy and dry, despite the fact that she kept reseting and didn't dehydrate. Her limbs were like lead, despite not being exhausted. She'd had no conversation in forever. All she'd had was Sans's perpetually cocky jeers and put-downs to listen to.

He was a poor conversation partner. Didn't even let her speak. Not that she tried very hard.

* * *

Attempt 353,210

She was Chara, daughter of King Asgore Dreemurr and Queen Toriel Dreemurr! It was she who had endured after death! It was she who persisted despite all! She and she ALONE held the power to turn back time, to undo even her own death! It was by her wit, by her skill, and by her unutterable dark powers, that the world would fall to ruin and all the miserable creatures inhabiting it would bow, and the last sight they would see would be her cackling grin and her knife crashing upon them like a meteor! SHE WAS THE MOST POWERFUL DEMON TO EVER EXIST! SHE WOULD ENDURE THE END OF THE UNIVERSE! SHE WAS ETERNAL, NEVER ENDING! SHE WAS -

* * *

Attempt 474,204  


\- just throwing herself at Sans and not even trying to defend herself. It didn't work very well, but that wasn't the point.

* * *

Attempt 500,000

Chara dimly remembered, in a time when she still felt pain, that she swore she would prevail even if she had to die twelve million times.

Now she was half way to a million. Hey, only 96% left to go!

* * *

Attempt ?

Chara wasn't even trying to win anymore.

Frisk had gone silent a long time ago, so there was no real conversation to be had. All she did now was lazily hack and slash in Sans's general direction, get killed, and try again.

She couldn't beat him. That much was plain. No matter how hard she tried Chara was slower, weaker, feebler. Beating Sans was utterly impossible and, like the illness that had taken her life, no amount of determination was going to save her. She couldn't outmaneuver Sans, let alone Sans, Flowey (NOT ASRIEL) _and_ Asgore. Chara had tried absolutely EVERY possible avenue to win, hundreds of thousands of times, but nothing ever worked.

What was Chara even trying to prove? Her family was gone. Even if they weren't, she was. Chara died immeasurably long ago, she was just hanging on out of some half-hearted, spiteful desire to make the world suffer with her. As if she was that important. She wasn't. She wasn't the strongest, she wasn't the smartest, and she wasn't the most important. THAT was a lesson Sans had drilled quite thoroughly into her head. She should just give up, there was nothing to be accomplished looping back over and over and over and _over_ again.

But... she didn't want to be...

* * *

Attempt ?

... a nobody.

* * *

Attempt ?

But wasn't that what she already was?

* * *

Sans

He stood, watching, waiting. And then...

A figure walked in, twirling his knife victoriously. It was bloody. Even from so far away Sans could make out his crooked grin, his glowing red eyes. Like an angel of death he glided in and stood in one place. The human boy focused, then a flash of golden light blossomed out from him.

That was the tether, then. Sans wondered how many times he'd battled him. He wondered if this was the one where he'd lose. Heh, well. Not if he had a say in it. He was rather... _hard headed._

The golden light faded back into the child, and instantly their expression _shattered._ The hungry red eyes drooped and didn't seem to be staring at anything at all. The megalomaniacal grin turned to a thin line. The death grip on his knife instantly slackened, and it looked almost like the knife would fall from the human's fingers at any second. Geez, how many times had he killed this kid?

Sans didn't ease up. They were counting on him. He had to stay firm. This could be a trick.

With slow, plodding steps, the human boy walked forwards, until he was finally face to face with Sans. Sans didn't say anything, instead inspecting the human's face to try to figure out just how many times he'd beat them, for their expression to have shifted so suddenly.

He watched the eyes closely now. There was no pupil. Just a glowing red iris, but it wasn't red like blood, but rather red like an ember about to go out. The hair was messy and blood-splattered, as was the outfit, but there was not a scratch on him.

With a deafening clatter, the knife crashed to the ground. Sans stared at it. This kid didn't _really_ think he would just spare him? After all he had done?

Almost in slow motion, the boy fell to his knees and stared forward blindly. Then at long last, his glowing eyes turned upwards to meet Sans's. The human sighed, looked down, then back up. And then...

"I give up," he muttered in defeat.

Sans's 'heart' froze. No way. Had he really... ha! And he didn't even need to throw down! Another score for being lazy!

Then, inexplicably, the human's mouth widened. The red in his eyes slid off, and some vaporous crimson fog slithered out of his mouth. It revealed regular brown eyes, and then the mist gathered itself into a ball before Sans. For a moment he thought he saw a human _girl_ inside it, but then the ball of fog flattened itself and was dispersed by the wind, gone for good. The body slumped to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

Huh.

He stared down at the human boy, who stirred weakly. The skeleton crouched by him and listened closely for anything he had to say. He had his suspicions that the kid had had a really bad time. "'m sorry," he slurred. "Couldn't stop her, 'm sorry..."

"Hey, it's fine, I guess. I think I can figure out what happened ya know? Ain't no bonehead," he joked, shrugging with his hands.

"'m gonna fix it," the boy said drearily, golden light flickering around his form. "I promise." The light died. "Just... just after I... " His eyes closed and his breathing evened out.

Sans nodded grimly and let the kid sleep.

He _really_ needed to go talk to the king about how he had just _saved everyone on the planet without lifting a finger!_

After that though?

It was time to go to rest.

* * *

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